On Nov. 22, my sister and I went to the Victoria Hospital to spend time with my mother prior to her passing. We arrived at around 8 a.m. and parked in the visitors’ parking lot. At 5 p.m., we left the hospital for a brief period of time. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, my vehicle got caught up on a large piece of ice, which was lying on the ground. The ice ripped away a portion of the under-carriage, causing what I later discovered was $1,500 worth of damage.

When I approached the security staff at the hospital, they advised that I should write a letter explaining the situation. It was suggested that the damage was the responsibility of the hospital, as they are liable for maintenance of the parking lot, including clearing snow and ice from that portion of the lot on which vehicles are required to drive and to park.

On Nov. 26, I delivered a letter to the hospital explaining the situation and requesting that they cover the cost of my insurance deductible. I was advised that the letter would be passed on to the appropriate administrator and that I would receive a response after it was reviewed. Again, I was led to believe that the hospital would cover the cost of my deductible.

There have been a number of telephone conversations since then, all initiated by myself. Each time, the people with whom I have spoken suggested that my request would have to be passed on to another administrator.

To date, I have received no written confirmation of the receipt of my request, let alone satisfaction with respect to it. The most recent contact has been from a man called Doug Dahl, who informed me that the hospital has no liability with respect to the damage to my vehicle, as they cannot prevent others from doing damage to the vehicles parked in the lot.

I arrived in the dark and left in the dark. I paid to park in the lot with the expectation that the lot would be well maintained. The damage was caused by a lack of proper maintenance of the lot (lack of proper snow removal) by the lot owner. For them to refuse to accept their liability, and to try to blame some unseen and unknown miscreant for the damage is completely irresponsible.